Brazilian Portuguese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself; Book only) [Paperback]

Sue Tyson-Ward (Author), Tyson-Ward (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0844200441 | ISBN-13: 978-0844200446 | Publication Date: January 11, 1997

Functional and fun, this course offers full pronunciation guides, grammar summaries, dialogues, cultural notes, vocabulary charts, and irregular verb tables.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sue Tyson-Ward is currently a part-time lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese at Lancaster Adult College and Chair of All Spanish and Portuguese Committee. She has extensive experience of teaching, examining and writing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary (January 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844200441
• ISBN-13: 978-0844200446
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,676,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You may end up having to buy another course, December 11, 2002

By 

Eric Jones (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brazilian Portuguese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself; Book only) (Paperback)

Looking at the good side of this course, the dialogues use everyday vocabulary in a variety of settings. The book may make the language look easy, it is not demanding, but this is a mixed blessing, for you do not learn much either. I was rather disappointed. There does not seem to be a plan to the way in which the language is presented, vocabulary and grammar are hardly explained and the tapes are too fast.
This course can however be complemented with Manuela Cook's Portuguese course (February 2002), which gives you more all around and has taught me Portuguese for Brazil and also other parts of the world where this language is spoken. I found in it the vocabulary and grammar explanations I needed; the tapes are at the right speed; and there are plenty of exercises, which are fun to do and gave me the practice I was looking for.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Frustrated with the audio cassette, July 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Brazilian Portuguese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself; Book only) (Paperback)

I bought the book with the audio cassette. Let me just say this: The author is British and she tries to give you "English" pronunciations for Portuguese words. This would be fine and good if I were British (I'm not) as they pronounce certain vowels differently than Americans. Also the cassette is organized into dialogues. The actors speak so quickly that I had to listen to dialogue 1 about 5 times before I could even get 50% of the sounds. What would have made the tape better would have been to slow down the dialogue and give the listener a chance to role play as one of characters with a pause after each line to give you a chance to process and say the sentences. Also, vocabulary is not explained at all nor is the grammar. You also don't get the sounds for the dipthongs. Even the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants are too quick for you to repeat after the speaker on the tape. And of course the key to learning a new language is repetition. Further the dialogue is so quick you can't tell if a word ending in "o" is pronounced "oo". As you know this is the most confusing thing about Portuguese.

After rewinding and rewinding, I gave up. I wasted my money on this one but it hasn't dampened my passion for learning the language. I think I'll just take a class at my local college.

So for those of you who complained about not having the tape and just the book. Don't sweat it. It's not worth it. Take a class or impose yourself on a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking friend.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a great book for the real beginner, January 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Brazilian Portuguese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Teach Yourself; Book only) (Paperback)

Maybe this is a good book for people who have already learned Spanish. I don't think that it really starts at "the beginning". I'm afraid that I will have to look for a more basic text and return to this one at some later point. Absoultely no grammar, just moves straight into dialogues and exercies.